JMCSS Super talks first 6 months in new role

Eric Jones was voted in as the new Jackson-Madison County School Board Superintendent on Tuesday evening. The school board voted 8-0, with one abstention, during a special meeting.(Photo: KENNETH CUMMINGS/The Jackson Sun)Buy Photo

Improving the school climate and culture was Jackson-Madison County Schools Superintendent Eric Jones’ top priority for the 2017-18 school year.

With classes resuming this week, Jones said there have been positive steps in improving the morale of students and staff.

“It’s kind of like a roller coaster — you see great things happening and you still see some things, frankly, that we still have to work on,” Jones said. “As long as we keep it at the forefront, we will continue to make improvements there, but I’m encouraged by what I’ve seen — but there is a lot of meat left on the bone for us take advantage of and improve our school climate and culture.”

School climate and culture is one of four focus areas Jones wants to address during his time as superintendent, with the others being early foundations, program alignment and workforce development. Jones said, however, if school climate and culture is not fixed the other focus areas cannot be improved.

Jones spoke on school climate and culture and several other topics as the main speaker at the Jackson Chamber’s quarterly membership breakfast at Union University.

Latest on Jones’ capital proposal plan

Since Jones unveiled his 10-year capital proposal — estimated to cost $144 million — to address the district’s school buildings 30 years or older last October, he has been trying to gain community buy-in and nail down the exact cost of the plan.

Jones said he’s gotten good feedback — and a few suggestions — from people for the proposal, but funding the proposal remains the most crucial aspect.

“At the end of the day, this is going to come down to funding,” Jones said. “How can we generate funding? How can we find alternate means of funding to make this plan work?”

Improving workforce development

This was a Jackson Chamber event, so the importance of a successful school system leading to a successful workforce was mentioned by Jones and Jackson Chamber President/CEO Kyle Spurgeon.

“Workforce development is the No. 1 opportunity we have to improve this community, and that affects everything we do,” Spurgeon said. “Public education is the biggest piece of workforce development, and we have a lot of decisions that have to be made over the next six, 12, 18 months that directly impact that.

“We encourage our members, or anyone else, when you’re looking at candidates to support just ask that question. However you feel about, it ask them do they support public education improvements.”

With several manufacturing industries in the area, including Toyota, one area of workforce development Jones wants to improve is in manufacturing.

Eliminating the stigma that comes with manufacturing work by allowing students to interact with employees from those companies is one way Jones wants to remedy the situation.

“We have to better our partnerships with those advanced manufacturing industries, because they’re chomping at the bit to have a ready workforce,” Jones said. “It’s on us to reach out and improve that partnership and expose our students to the opportunities that lay out there.”

Reach Omer Yusuf at oyusuf@jacksonsun.com or 731-425-9637 and on Twitter @OmerAYusuf.